It is rather common to provide owners or operators of motor vehicles such as automobiles, trucks and buses, and the owners or operators of sailboats, motor boats and aircraft with an operator's or instruction manual providing information on the characteristics, operation and limitations of the vehicle, on procedures for detecting and remedying malfunctions and for adequate maintenance. Such operator's procedure manuals are in the form on a booklet or book which, depending on the manufacturer's policy and on the complication or difficulty of operation of the vehicle, may be of substantial size and consisting of a substantial number of pages. Such operator's manuals are often stored in the glove compartment, when the vehicle dash or instrument panel is so provided, or in a side panel or backseat pocket.
Aircraft pilots are called upon to consult a checklist and to follow a carefully planned sequence of steps preparatory to engine start, during runup prior to takeoff, and prior to landing. Such checklists in a printed form, are either of large size, or consisting of several separate sheets, and thus awkward to handle as they must be held in one hand while operating the controls with the other hand or clipped on a knee clipboard to free the hands. They are subject to rapid deterioration, through repeated use, and they are often misplaced or lost after use. In addition, aircraft pilots during flight and approaches to airports must consult airways charts and other navigation charts, radio facilities charts and approach plates describing the appropriate procedure and profile for visual and instrument approach to the runway. Navigation charts and approach plates are printed on very light thin paper which deteriorates rapidly through continuous use, which is awkward to handle, sometimes difficult to read, and they are easily lost when removed from their looseleaf binders.
The present invention permits to replace operation manuals, instructions, checklists, charts, maps and other often-consulted operation and procedural printed information by a small number of appropriate transparent plastic cards each providing a substantial volume of information data condensed in the form of a transparent microfilm capable, after introduction into the projection device of the invention, to be controllably displayed on a screen mounted on the face of a vehicle instrument panel for providing a visible magnified representation of the information under easy observation by a user in artificial or natural light, as well as in the dark.